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EU4 Development Diary - 4th February 2016

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Europa Universalis development diary. We are now working fully towards 1.16 and our next big expansion. While I’ve always been the lead designer for EU4, I’m now the project lead for this expansion, as Wiz has moved to another project.

One of the biggest changes in concept is the introduction of sailors. Sailors represent the trained seamen of a nation. Sailors differ from manpower both in what they are used for, and in how you get them. Only coastal provinces provide sailors, and the amount of sailors depend on total development in that province. Sailors are required when constructing new ships, and when ships are “repaired”. Of course not all ships require the same amount of sailors, with heavy ships needing the most and transports the least.

Docks and Drydocks now provide 50% and 100% more sailors from their provinces instead of increasing forcelimits, while Shipyards and Grand Shipyards have been redesigned to increase naval forcelimits & decrease shipbuilding times in those provinces.

Natural Harbours and Coastal Trade Centers increase the amount of sailors you get from a province, while Merchant marine now gives +50% Sailors & Press Gangs now give +20% Sailor Recovery. Some nations also have ideas giving them more Sailors from their provinces with Netherlands and Norway having the biggest boosts at +25%. There are also policies, parliament issues & norse gods boosting your sailor pool as well.

Qvpb8Sf.jpg


If you have the expansion, you also gain sailors from occupying another nation’s coastal provinces, even if your maximum possible pool is not increased.

One of the most feared things in europe in this time-period was the arrival of slave raiders from the north african coast. Countless villages were razed and millions of europeans were sold in slavery in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli & Istanbul until the European nations were finally able to stop it at the middle of the 19th century by simply conquering the North African coast.

Now Barbary Nations lose their 10% cheaper ship tradition, and they gained the ability to raid for slaves. Raiding for Slaves is now something fleets can do at sea, where they gain money and sailors from coastal provinces that are not their allies or subjects. To raid a coastal province, you need be able to blockade it with that fleet, and you can only raid a province once every ten years. The efficiency of raiding is reduced by fleets on pirate hunting patrol. Raiding of course hurts your relation with the owner of provinces you raid.

The reason for why you get sailors from raids, is that plenty of them historically ended up chained to an oar at a galley.

wuoomf6.jpg


Next week, we’ll take a deep look at how we have redesigned the espionage system.
 
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You MUST give raiding to The Knights. Because that is what they did, but only against muslims. That way The Knights might actualy have a small role in this game, like they had in real life. THIS IS A MUST Johan!! Pretty please :)

Quote from Wikipedia: On Rhodes the Hospitallers,[8] by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes,[9] were forced to become a more militarised force, fighting especially with the Barbary pirates.
 
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No more gigantic Ottoman navy that's way over the limit, yay.
I don't know, the Ottomans have a pretty long coastline 50 years into the game and field predominantly galleys which use fewer sailors. I think the nations which will lose out the most are probably Portugal, France and Italian nations all of which were able to leverage their wealth to create large fleets from a small number of coastal provinces.
 
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Hello everyone, and welcome to another Europa Universalis development diary. We are now working fully towards 1.16 and our next big expansion. While I’ve always been the lead designer for EU4, I’m now the project lead for this expansion, as Wiz has moved to another project.

One of the biggest changes in concept is the introduction of sailors. Sailors represent the trained seamen of a nation. Sailors differ from manpower both in what they are used for, and in how you get them. Only coastal provinces provide sailors, and the amount of sailors depend on total development in that province. Sailors are required when constructing new ships, and when ships are “repaired”. Of course not all ships require the same amount of sailors, with heavy ships needing the most and transports the least.

Docks and Drydocks now provide 50% and 100% more sailors from their provinces instead of increasing forcelimits, while Shipyards and Grand Shipyards have been redesigned to increase naval forcelimits & decrease shipbuilding times in those provinces.

Natural Harbours and Coastal Trade Centers increase the amount of sailors you get from a province, while Merchant marine now gives +50% Sailors & Press Gangs now give +20% Sailor Recovery. Some nations also have ideas giving them more Sailors from their provinces with Netherlands and Norway having the biggest boosts at +25%. There are also policies, parliament issues & norse gods boosting your sailor pool as well.


Qvpb8Sf.jpg


If you have the expansion, you also gain sailors from occupying another nation’s coastal provinces, even if your maximum possible pool is not increased.

One of the most feared things in europe in this time-period was the arrival of slave raiders from the north african coast. Countless villages were razed and millions of europeans were sold in slavery in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli & Istanbul until the European nations were finally able to stop it at the middle of the 19th century by simply conquering the North African coast.

Now Barbary Nations lose their 10% cheaper ship tradition, and they gained the ability to raid for slaves. Raiding for Slaves is now something fleets can do at sea, where they gain money and sailors from coastal provinces that are not their allies or subjects. To raid a coastal province, you need be able to blockade it with that fleet, and you can only raid a province once every ten years. The efficiency of raiding is reduced by fleets on pirate hunting patrol. Raiding of course hurts your relation with the owner of provinces you raid.

The reason for why you get sailors from raids, is that plenty of them historically ended up chained to an oar at a galley.

wuoomf6.jpg




Next week, we’ll take a deep look at how we have redesigned the espionage system.
Looks really good. Anybody having an idea what those Norse Gods are?


Also @Johan can Denmark have a strong navy without Norway or is Norway required due to that sailors buff? I.e. does Denmark have a sailor buff too?
 
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What happens regarding sailors when you upgrade your ships. Currently upgrading forces a ship to repair from 1% will this use up sailors?
 
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@Johan -- Will new naval revamp include changes to naval tradition? Currently, as per the tooltip, you can gain NT by protecting trade but not by blockades. So during war, instead of getting that nice monthly tick upwards protecting trade, I'm actually losing tradition by blockading my hated enemies.
 
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What happens regarding sailors when you upgrade your ships. Currently upgrading forces a ship to repair from 1% will this use up sailors?
Hopefully not, since sailors didn't just mysteriously die when they were assigned to a new ship.
 
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Hopefully not, since sailors didn't just mysteriously die when they were assigned to a new ship.
Well, soldiers do mysteriously get executed when disbanding a regiment, so…
 
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Will the ship crew be able to land in coastal fort and provinces to siege them down.
Perhaps not coastal provinces which have easy access to the mainland. But islands sure should be in since it would be historical. And coastal forts which are isolated should be possible to naval siege too---like on the West African coast.
Well, soldiers do mysteriously get executed when disbanding a regiment, so…
Well this would be a good opportunity to get rid of that too. (Although I guess it is more then going back home to their fields/deserting. Doing that is much harder as a sailor.)
 
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Revert the game to patch 1.3 and do not buy any DLC, and you will have the same experience as if the game never got any DLC in the first place. DLC is what funds such a long time of continued development.
How? It's currently impossible to revert to 1.3 as only 1.4 and beyond is available on the steam beta tab. Would be a nice option though imho.
 
I would love to see a more informative naval battle display, showing where each ship is positioned on a map (e.g. by displaying a 20 x 20 grid map, in the style of the land based map).

I want to see my nifty line of battle descend into an all out brawl with ships everywhere ;)
Specifically, I want ships to be able to engage ships only with the cannons that could are on that side of said ship (e.g. 1 ship should be capable of engaging two ships, with the guns on either side).

Basically, a reworked naval battle system as well, I guess.
 
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